Workout of the Day

Mar 29

Social Media and Squats

Circled up with the 6am class on a Tuesday morning, all sitting in the bottom of a squat to open our hips before the warm-up, I had an amusing idea: if everyone sat in the bottom of a squat (a “resting squat,” we’ll call it) every time they went on Facebook or Instagram, we might put some orthopaedic surgeons out of business.

It’s not that I have anything against orthopaedists; I’m just not a fan of all of the preventable injury and dysfunction that’s rampant today. The way I see it, if we all commit to dropping down into a resting squat every time we pull out our phones to peruse social media, two things likely happen: 1) we find ourselves with lower rates of back pain, knee pain, and hip dysfunction; and 2) we spend a bit less time engaged in the mindless scroll of social media. After all, no one wants to be that guy sitting in a full squat on his phone in the middle of El Torito while he should be enjoying the company and conversation of his friends.

However it pans out -- 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour a day -- I think our backs, hips, and knees would be happy with the choice.

The data confirms this point, too. Studies have found much lower rates of low back and knee pain in undeveloped, low-income, and rural parts of the world. Despite superior healthcare access and technology in the United States, for example, rural communities in rural Africa or Southeast Asia -- places where people don’t really sit in chairs, but rather spend their sitting time in the bottom of a squat -- have far and away lower chronic pain. Of course I don’t want to mistake correlation for causation, and there are, I’m sure, other factors at play; but my experience, observation, and knowledge of the body tells me that there is certainly something significant at play here.

In the vein of walking (or squatting) the talk, I plan to spend the next month dropped into a resting squat any time I log on to social media. Good news: you’re invited to partake in the challenge, too.

Next time you’re on Instagram or Facebook, drop into a squat, take a picture, and tag the gym (@cfnobo) and hashtag #socialmediaandsquats.